Thank you for the reminder that I can't cancel anything out unless it is a factor of both the numerator and the denominator - I'm having trouble with knowing when values can cancel out. By "factor" do you mean values that have been factored out? For example, (x^2 - 9) = (x+3)(x-3)...and if there is (x+3) on the denominator, then the (x+3)s can cancel out?
So, from here: 1 + (x+1)/(x+2): I'm wondering if the x can cancel out, leaving us with 1+1/2 = 1 1/2 ?
It doesn't seem right to me, though....I just don't know what else to do.